Lessons Learned

Look in most social studies textbooks, read analysis of historical events and one usually finds a common categorization of information. The categories often include the economic, social, political, religious, the arts and technological angles of what happened and why. And sometimes one finds a discussion of how geography affected several of these categories. Social studies teachers make these aspects of our study of society a mainstay to our teaching.

If you are not already teaching your students how we break the study of social studies down into these categories, look to use the  ESPRAT+G acronym. Much like using the 6+1 Traits of Writing to give our students a structure and language to talk about their writing, ESPRAT+G can do the same for the understanding of social studies.

I put a Web site together that I share with my students to help them better understand ESPRAT+G. Your students might find it helpful as well.